I’ve been drawn to Realm of Ink ever since I stumbled upon the game’s page in the demo section during the Let’s Play festival on Steam. Already from the screenshots it was possible to notice that the project stood out with at least a beautiful style, although at that time there were still questions about the gameplay. However, I was never able to play the “demo” because it simply did not work for me. Fortunately, there were no such problems with the full version, so after playing for several hours, I am ready to share my impressions in this review.
Realm of Ink is an isometric Rogelike action game in the vein of Hades. The game took a lot from the creation of Supergiant Games, including what I think is not the best decision, but we’ll talk about that later. First of all, I would like to say that the graphics here are really beautiful. Everything is done in an inky aesthetic, as if the artist worked with ink and pen and then brought his drawings to life. Characters, enemies, environments and even the interface – each element has a single style, creating an unusual but atmospheric picture. It’s hard not to admire how detailed the characters and their animations are. Even the NPCs you meet along the way have a strong personality and visually fit perfectly into the overall style of the game. However, the locations are not as diverse as we would like, so we hope that the authors will work in this direction in future updates.
The monotony of locations is often found in roguelikes, but most often this is compensated by the variability of the passage and a wide variety of builds. Considering early access, this isn’t all that bad in Realm of Ink. At the moment there are only 17 skills in the game, and I unlocked almost all of them in 3 runs. But the situation with perks is better. They are divided into gray, blue, purple, yellow and red.
Gray perks, that is, the simplest ones, provide one bonus – most often, a small increase in characteristics, such as increasing attack power. The rest can give either the same, but stronger bonus, or some additional effect. Red ones allow you to get both powerful positive effects and noticeable negative ones. There are no restrictions on them, and you will always receive them in sufficiently large quantities during the passage, thereby strengthening your character. In addition to general perks that increase stats and provide other bonuses, there are also hero-exclusive upgrades that seriously change the innate abilities of heroes. For example, A’Quan’s alt attack releases a bouncing ball, but you can make it explode instead of bouncing a short time after being hit.
During the race, you will come across a kind of resting location, where you can purchase a perk with accumulated silver, improve your abilities, or eat a dish, thereby restoring your health and receiving a temporary buff. To do this, you need to interact with very charismatic NPCs, who are well drawn and voiced. You can either talk to them with the R key, or immediately go to their services with the F key – there is no need to scroll through their preliminary dialogues. Although the conversations do not make any sense, they are sometimes quite funny, so if you are interested in learning about the world and the characters, you can listen to them if you wish.
You can also come across NPCs outside of peaceful zones. Someone will offer to play for money to get a random prize, someone will give you perks in exchange for health, and someone will simply offer to try a dish that gives a random buff. Moreover, they will appear in a completely random order. All this maintains interest in the passage.
However, the developers took from Hades not only positive aspects, but also one very controversial one, in my opinion. The fact is that the passage of Realm of Ink is strictly linear, despite the presence of some elements of randomness. The missions follow strictly one after another, and at the end of each of them a specific boss awaits you. You always know what will happen next and who you have to fight. Obviously, this does not have the best effect on replayability.
Realm of Ink also has a constant progression that persists between runs. First of all, players can discover new characters with unique attacks (although according to the lore, we only have one heroine who seems to transform into other people). In addition, players can upgrade passive upgrades on a special talent page, divided into three branches. The first is responsible for attack, the second is for survivability, and the third provides other bonuses such as improved drops, discounts in the store, and so on.
What’s good is that even without talent you don’t feel weak and helpless, as in many other representatives of the genre. Enemies don’t blow half your face off with a simple blow, and you don’t have to spend half an hour picking at them. However, the same principle also works in the opposite direction: fully leveling up will not turn you into an imbalanced killing machine. For example, you can increase the damage dealt by a maximum of 35%. In addition, the talents themselves are pumped up quite quickly. In just one playthrough, you can learn several skills at once or improve existing ones. It seems that the developers tried to do everything possible so that you do not suffer in the first stages and immediately begin to enjoy the gameplay.
The combat system of Realm of Ink turned out to be cheerful and dynamic, although very banal. You have at your disposal a regular attack and an additional attack (different for heroes), two slots for abilities that need to be selected and upgraded, a pet ability and evasion with short-term invulnerability. The only downside is that active skills do not have any resource to use, which means you will stupidly use them on cooldown. There is no question of any tactics – just watch the cooldown time and use it as quickly as possible. In my opinion, it was worth making a separate resource for skills, which would be filled from normal attacks, or something like that. This would make the battles more thoughtful and interesting. However, even so, the “combat” does not feel boring, thanks to the variety of heroes and skills.
Realm of Ink is not without its problems, but it would be a lie to say that it isn’t fun to play. The game attracts with beautiful graphics and a pleasant atmosphere, and holds you in with good variable leveling and gameplay, although they require improvement. The project is currently in early access, and a lot of new content has already been prepared for release. The potential is huge, and if the authors make the necessary improvements, Realm of Ink could become one of the brightest representatives in the Roguelike genre.
